#metropolitan-opera — Public Fediverse posts

When William K. Vanderbilt's $30,000 offer for an opera box was rejected by Mrs. Astor's crowd at the Academy of Music, the snubbed industrialists built their own opera house. The Met opened in 1880 with superior acoustics and 36 private boxes—and the Academy of Music couldn't compete. Today's Lincoln Center home continues that legacy of grandeur.
#NYCHistory #MetropolitanOpera #GildedAge #Opera #LincolnCenter #Architecture
https://citybeautifulblog.com/the-metropolitan-opera/

🎭🎶 Did you know? On #NationalOperaDay, we remember the legendary diva Lucine Amara. She performed 9 incredible performances of Tosca at The Metropolitan Opera!

🌟 Her first performance on November 20, 1968, featured Placido Domingo as Cavaradossi and William Dooley as Baron Scarpia, conducted by Kurt Adler.

#Sunday #SundayVibes #SundayMood #Opera #ClassicalMusic #LucineAmara #MetropolitanOpera #Tosca #GiacomoPuccini #OperaHistory

In the past 5 yrs, the #MetropolitanOpera has drained money from its endowment, entered a still-tentative $200M deal with Saudi Arabia & cut its performance schedule as it struggled to bring stability to an institution hammered by the #coronavirus #pandemic.

But in the latest sign of the persistent financial challenges facing the largest #PerformingArts org in the #US, #TheMet announced Tuesday that it would lay off workers, cut the salaries of its top-paid execs & postpone a new production….

#AmazingMusic
#Opera
#MetropolitanOpera
#Carmen

https://youtu.be/K2snTkaD64U?si=A3xbT3cujx7ezWwE

Von New York nach Fürth: Die Metropolitan Opera zeigt Bellini-Meisterwerk im Cineplex

Link zum Online-Artikel: https://fuerthaktuell.de/?p=7635

#fürth #bellini #ipuritani #metropolitanopera #liveinhd #cineplexfürth #opera #newyork #lisetteoropesa #weltklassequartett #franken #mittelfranken #bayern #news ///fa-7635

🎭🌟 We celebrated #WorldOperaDay and honored legendary diva, Lucine Amara, who performed at The #MetropolitanOpera for 40+ years! She served as artistic director of NJ Assoc of Verismo Opera for 20 years, gave master classes, concerts, lectures & more.🌠

#LucineAmara #ClassicalMusic #ArtisticExcellence #opera #singer #NewYorkCity #NewYork #arts #UnitedStatesofAmerica

For those of you who are also addicted to The Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD theater showings, heads up, they added a special showing of "Met Opera: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" in January.
#Opera #MetropolitanOpera #AntiFascism

https://www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/2025-26-season/the-amazing-adventures-of-kavalier--clay/

I went to my first "in theater" opera performance yesterday...

Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart (one of my all time top three favorites!) 👍 💕

A group of us attended "together" in three different cities (with texting/calls at intermission and afterward). Fun!

https://www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/2024-25-season/le-nozze-di-figaro/

It was outstanding of course. There were about ten little glitches in the #video stream, but the sound was excellent.

I wasn't too keen on the "modern" 1930s staging, but that is a minor point.

I would consider making this a habit! 🙂

#TheMet #MetropolitanOpera #Opera #Mozart #MarriageOfFigaro

The American soprano, one of the most admired singers of her generation, is headlining the Metropolitan Opera’s first new production of Verdi’s “Aida” in 36 years. Blue, now 40, debuted at the Met in 2017 as Mimi in Puccini’s “La Boheme” and has become a fixture at the house, starring in two opening nights and this fall portraying the lead character in Osvaldo Golijov’s “Ainadamar.” ABC News reports:
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/soprano-angel-blue-sings-metropolitan-opera-aida-new-117086246

#Opera #Soprano #MetropolitanOpera #AngelBlue

How a Tony-Winning Musical Theater Composer Makes Opera
#Variety #Podcasts #Grounded #JeanineTesori #MetropolitanOpera

https://variety.com/2024/legit/podcasts/jeanine-tesori-grounded-opera-1236128331/

#MondayMotivation

📣 Start the week listening to beautiful music. Enjoy grand opera with this excerpt of Metropolitan Opera legend Lucine Amara and Albert Da Costa singing "O Fatal Pietra... O terra addio!" by Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida.

👩‍🎤 Click here: https://tinyurl.com/v4wn6p9v

Ms. Amara performed the role of Aida in opera houses around the world, including 61 times at the Metropolitan Opera!

#LucineAmara #opera #Aida #Verdi #AlbertDaCosta #singer #operasinger #MetropolitanOpera

I'm going down to #NYC tomorrow for my uncle's birthday and taking him to the #opera, opening night of La Forza del Destino at the #MetropolitanOpera. He's been a huge opera fan for most of his life, and he can't really get there on his own anymore, and I think this may be the first time he's going since the start of the pandemic, so this is a Big Deal. I am a bundle of nerves; there's so much that could go wrong! 1/6

"Three of the operas that WCPE plans to reject in the 2023-24 season were written by Black or Mexican composers. This past April, WCPE also refused to broadcast another Met-produced opera written by a Black composer that included LGBTQ themes."

N Carolina Radio Station Maps Nix of 'Inappropriate' Met Opera Broadcasts

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/29/1202425600/met-opera-wcpe-north-carolina via NPR
Image: Nonesuch via eBay
#Met #MetOpera #MetropolitanOpera #PublicRadio

[UPDATE: September 12, 2023; our ASL Opera Project website is now live! Join us there for new videos, translation updates, and for consultation concerning the right interpretation of Opera in American Sign Language!]

[UPDATE: July 11, 2023.  Janna and I met with the Metropolitan Opera to discuss heightened ASL interpreting for their performances. The meeting was positive, forward-thinking, and hopeful! We will soon update with more information! Here’s the July 11 update!]

My delightful wife Janna Sweenie and I are big lovers of opera. Opera is the pinnacle of all the Performing Arts — Painting, Acting, Voice, Costumes, Lights and Sets — and when put together, in unison, in an exaggerated and elevated performance, the entire world glows and resonates! We have always been dismayed that opera is not often, if ever, interpreted in American Sign Language for the Deaf like all Broadway shows are interpreted. Janna and I are currently working on our “Opera Project” where she will present ASL renderings of famous opera arias. We will place those performances online as proof-of-concept. This is a challenging, but rewarding, and complex academic process of interpretation and adaptation, and implementation.

Here’s my Boles.tv live stream discussion of the Deaf singing at The Met:

Here are some of the dramatic, visual, description-rich arias we plan to present in ASL. We will begin with:

O mio babbino caro

Una Furtiva Lacrima

Here are other arias we plan to perform — these recommendations are thanks to our friends in the Reddit /opera group — many who who believe in us and who are helping us:

Der Holle Rache

L’amour est un oiseau rebelle

Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre

Madre diletta abbracciami

Che gelida manina

Ariadne auf Naxos

Pif, Paf, Pouf

I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major-General

Non, Pagliaccio Non Son

Tu qui, Santuzza

In Questa Reggia

If you have a favorite opera aria you think would make a good, dramatic, visual, ASL performance, please leave a comment here, or send us a note!

In the spirit of this dramatic ASL aria project, we sent a letter to The Metropolitan Opera in New York City asking if we might help them set up select American Sign Language interpreted performances. We were not able to find a single point of contact for that request at The Met, so if you happen to know someone there who might be amenable to our request, please get in touch with us!

What follows is the letter Janna and I submitted to The Met asking them to let us work with them to create select, accessible, ASL interpreted opera performances for the Deaf.

American Sign Language Interpreted Performances at The Met

Hi There!

Will you allow the Deaf to sing at The Met?

We apologize for including more than one point of contact for this inquiry, but we didn’t know who is responsible for accessibility for performances at The Met, and we didn’t want this message to get blackholed, and finding specific email addresses has proven a challenge. If we don’t have the right person, might you please forward this email to the correct point?

My wife and I are interested in providing American Sign Language interpreted performances for The Met.

My wife, Janna Sweenie, originally from Iowa, is Deaf and has been teaching ASL for 50 years. For the last 35 years, she has been teaching ASL at NYU and at other major universities in the Tri-State area. She is a language pioneer, and served as a Julliard/TDF instructor for interpreting Broadway musicals for interpreters from around the world. Janna also finds jobs for the disabled as a rehabilitation counselor for the State of New York.

I am Hearing, and I have written several ASL books with Janna. I created the ASL program at CUNY-SPS, and I operate the HardcoreASL.com and sosASL.com websites. I also teach American Sign Language, Theatre, Dramatic Literature, and Public Health. Fresh from Nebraska, I started in New York City as a graduate student at Columbia. I was Peter Stone’s associate. I was Al Carmine’s librettist and lyricist. Milos Foreman and I worked together on film theory in performance. Liviu Ciulei and I collaborated on my Wozzeck adaptation. I was an editor and consultant for Helen Merrill. I fixed dramaturgical structure for Marty Richards and Sam Crothers at The Producer Circle. Since then, I’ve written several books on a variety of topics, done a lot of teaching, and I am now embedded in AI Art, Voice, and Performance research, and revolution.

Janna and I both admire and appreciate opera, and we would really like to provide live ASL interpretation – stage right in the audience near the stage – for select Met performances. We are not seeking payment, we are just hoping to open a dialogue, and perhaps even begin a relationship with – The Met – to see if you are at least willing to try out this idea in some meaningful way for the Deaf Community.

Here are a couple of common concerns you may have:

1. You already provide text captions. Text captions are not ASL and text captions are for Hearing people who don’t understand the language being presented on stage. ASL is a visual language, and many Deaf people do not have good English comprehension, and so providing interpreted performances in ASL, in their language, honors their Culture, and facilitates inclusion in the experience. ASL grammar and syntax are more French than English. ASL was invented by Laurent Clerc, a French speaker. ASL does not equal English text.

2. You stream HD Video and Open Captions. Interview portions of the shows are not captioned. Text translation captions during the performance are not a substitute for experiencing a live performance. The Deaf have the right to be provided the same in-person opera experience that the Hearing audience is able to enjoy in real time, in the same building, with the orchestra and on stage performers. Few realize how much the Deaf enjoy the sounds of music and the vibrations of live music. The Deaf see with their eyes; the Deaf sing with their hands. The Deaf Community appreciates a full, immersive, experience that can easily be provided if you give us a chance to make this happen.

3. The Deaf Community isn’t interested in opera. Sometimes, as Steve Jobs famously said, “People don’t know what they want until they have it.” Opera is the same way for the Deaf. There has been no exposure to the music, no teaching of the ideal, no attendance of the aesthetic. Many Deaf have no clue what they’re missing in an interpreted opera experience at The Met. We can solve that with you. We can demonstrate the beauty of the Art and bring in a whole new audience of appreciation.

For many years, all Broadway shows have been live interpreted via the TDF. We understand The Met has been kind, and wonderful, in providing disabled wheelchair access for performances. Why doesn’t The Met offer the same, disabled, groundbreaking inclusion of the Deaf? You can if you decide in favor of a reasonable accessibility.

If you have any questions or concerns for us, we are delighted to answer them in email or in person.

Janna and I would love to have a meeting with you to discuss the viability of this idea. Janna will even do a live, ASL interpreted, presentation of “O mio babbino caro” for you if you are interested.

We realize ASL interpreted Met performances will require many hours of preparation on our side – the translation from the original language to English to ASL will be important to get right, and we will work with you to get there – as well as also involving several accommodations on your side; but we know this should be important to The Met, and for the Deaf community, to finally be brought together to unite in unison of purpose and performance.

Yes, together, we can help the Deaf sing at The Met!

Best Wishes,

David Boles
Janna Sweenie

We have yet to receive a response from The Metropolitan Opera. If, and when, we receive a reply to our inquiry, we will update this article as necessary.

In the meantime, be sure to get in touch with The Met and let them know you support American Sign Language interpreted performances for the Deaf!

(NOTE: All images in this article were created with AI. These people, places, and dreams, do not exist — even though, perhaps, they should find life.)

UPDATE: June 2, 2003
Via Medici.tv, we discovered a 2019 performance — Don Pasquale de Donizetti — at Opéra Orchestre national Montpellier Occitanie Pyrénées-Méditerranée that included French Sign Language interpretation on stage! Here is the PR blurp:

This highly theatrical staging by Valentin Schwarz at the Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, starring Bruno Taddia in the title-role, Julia Muzychenko in her role debut as Norina, as well as Edoardo Miletti as Ernesto, is also the first time an opera is adapted and staged in the French Sign Language (LSF), with LSF actors Katia Abbou and Vincent Bexiga playing a full role in the action.

Here is a screenshot — (not AI!) — from the HD performance:

Now, it’s The Metropolitan Opera’s turn to stand up for accessibility and the disabled!

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https://bolesblogs.com/2023/06/01/will-the-metropolitan-opera-allow-the-deaf-to-sing/

#ada #americanSignLanguage #aria #asl #culture #davidBoles #deaf #e4e4e4 #equalAccess #jannaSweenie #language #meaning #met #metopera #metropolitanOpera #opera #performance #reddit #sing #singing #theMet #visual

#Jockstraps and #dragqueens are not what one would expect to see onstage at the #MetropolitanOpera. Nor was the work a #Black #composer until last year, when #TerenceBlanchard became the first with #FireShutUpinMyBones, based on the #memoir by #journalist #CharlesMBlow, who is openly #bisexual. Now, Blanchard returns to the Met with #champion another new work based on a #truestory about a #queer #Black #man.

When I was renewing our #SanFranciscoOpera subscription I was struck by the fact that three of next year's eight operas are from the 21st century. Apparently San Francisco isn't alone: New York's #MetropolitanOpera is also planning to present a lot of 21st century opera, including a number of world premieres.

I'm all for it. There's a lot of great #opera from the 19th century, but the repertoire can't remain frozen. I'm glad major opera companies are presenting the works of today's composers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/arts/music/met-opera-peter-gelb-yannick-nezet-seguin.html

#Free Friday night, 2/24/23, WQXR-FM in NYC is live-streaming a #MetropolitanOpera #Concert supporting #Ukraine at 7pm ET, on the one year anniversary of the invasion.

Arranged in collaboration with the Ukrainian Mission to the UN, the #LincolnCenter event will feature #Beethoven's 5th, #Mozart's Requiem, Valentin Silvestrov: “Prayer for Ukraine”, and start with the Ukrainian National Anthem.

#SymSat #ClassicalMusic #FreeConcert

https://www.wqxr.org/story/ukraine-concert-remembrance-and-hope/

A pleasure to the ear:

Renée Fleming's new Album "Her Greatest Moments at the MET" (Live recordings)
(DECCA 2023)

#NowListening #ClassicalMusic #Opera #RenéeFleming #MetropolitanOpera

@classicalmusic

Listening to #MetropolitanOpera broadcast on #WFMT, historic singers who made their debuts on the air. #Opera This is one of my of #nerdingout interests, anything about #historicoperasingers. @TimAshAsh @rodrigodiposa @arb_banerjee

Metropolitan Opera 2022-23 Review: Aida - OperaWire https://operawire.com/metropolitan-opera-2022-23-review-aida/ #opera #Aida #Verdi #MetropolitanOpera

Time for #LaTraviatta at the #MetropolitanOpera #weekend
#Violetta

#somethingbeautiful this evening: #Oregon vistas from my walk at the end of the day, listening to the Metropolitan #Opera live radio stream of #PeterGrimes while watching the leaves fall. 🖤🍂🍁 (Now finishing the livestream in my #sewing workshop.)

Then off to read...

Goodnight, friends ✨ see you in Dreamland

#nature #walking #metropolitanopera